Categorizing and analyzing sales of particular products

ABSTRACT

A system and method for identification and notification of elevated over-the-counter medication sales is disclosed. Localized alerts of elevated sales of specified over-the-counter medications and graphical views of historical sales intensity by medication category are provided. Intervention instructions to manage responses to factors causing the elevation of sales are provided. The system analyzes sales volume from stores that sell the identified medications to determine if sales volume exceeds expected thresholds. Data from individual products are combined into meaningful categories for tracking, and alerts are sent to users of data anomalies and of intervention messages or tasks requiring attention. Users view a geographic area and define their own notification events and mode. User interaction includes: a graphical representation of their geographic area with indicators of all current alerts; historical sales trend charts per category; graphical time-lapse representations of sales intensity per category; and task management to coordinate action and response.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/335,467, filed Dec. 31, 2002, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORIDENTIFICATION AND NOTIFICATION OF ELEVATED OVER-THE-COUNTER MEDICATIONSALES WITH RESPONSE COORDINATION,” which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

FIELD

The invention generally relates to computer software and morespecifically to a system and method for identification and notificationof elevated over-the-counter medication sales with responsecoordination.

BACKGROUND

In today's world, bio-terrorist attacks are of increasing concern, butcannot be readily detected until a late stage when it may be too latefor effective intervention. Government officials, health carefacilities, and the public may not detect a problem until a number ofpeople have been affected beyond effective intervention. There is thusan increasingly important need for monitoring public illness anddetecting bio-events at the earliest possible stages of exposure andinitial outbreak. The present invention is directed toward meeting thisneed.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present invention to provide a computerizedsystem and method for identification of elevated over-the-countermedication sales. It is a further object of the present invention toprovide a system and method for notification and response coordinationof elevated over-the-counter medication sales.

These objects and others are achieved by various forms of the presentinvention. According to one aspect of the invention, a system and methodfor providing identification and notification of elevatedover-the-counter medication sales with response coordination isprovided. The system and method aids in early detection of bio-eventsincluding public health outbreaks and the deliberate release of apathogenic agent as in a bio-terrorist attack. Since bio-terroristpathogens initially create flu-like symptoms, tracking select categoriesof medications designed to address those symptoms aids in earlydetection of public illness, including bio-events that result from abio-terrorist attack.

Retail sales volume data of numerous over-the-counter medications aregathered from a variety of retail sales outlets. This raw data iscategorized according to the chemical composition of each individualmedication to allow reporting according to a variety of categorizationschemes, including single-chemical (e.g. aspirin), multi-chemical (e.g.aspirin plus caffeine), simple symptom (e.g. nausea) and complex symptom(e.g. flu). The data is received from the retail sales outlets daily,with fields for the sales date, chemical composition, number of unitssold and the store identification information. Supporting data is alsoreceived from the retail sales outlets daily with location informationfor each store, including store number, address, city, state, ZIP code,opening date and closing date. From this information, the geo-codelocation such as latitude and longitude for each store is derived foruse in defining the store's service area. Examples of retail salesoutlets include, but are not limited to, pharmacies, grocery stores, anddiscounters.

Simply described, the daily sales data for each store is categorizedaccording to one or all of the categorization schemes. For each scheme,the data is transformed using a several step process so that the alertthreshold for the current day can be defined. This threshold value iscalculated by analyzing past sales data, accounting for fluctuationscaused by changes in general store traffic, seasonal and weekly salestrends and discrete effects such as coupon drops or promotional sales.The threshold value also allows for a margin of error in the predictionprocess. If the current day's sales for the individual category exceedthe threshold, a localized breach is noted. Not every localized breachin the data will result in the system sending an alert message tosubscribers. Additional factors analyzed are the population densitysurrounding the retail store as well as the proximity of other retailstores and breaches that may have occurred at those nearby stores.

When an alert is generated, a message will be sent to all subscriberswhose account includes the location of the store in their geographicalentitlement area. In order to protect the individual retail store'sprivacy, alerts and messages will only refer to the store service areawhere the alert occurred. The store service area can include one or morezip codes and/or portions of a given zip code. Users have the ability todefine their own notification methods, the addresses used for each ofthose methods and the preferred order of notification. Users can alsodefine other users to act as backups if they are not able to respondquickly. The definition of the preferred order of notification andbackup users is called the notification chain. Due to the criticalnature of the alert information, each user will only be given a certainperiod of time to respond to their notification before the systemadvances the notification chain. This period is flexible, and in apreferred embodiment is set to 60 minutes.

When users reply, the timestamp will be recorded for use in determiningresponse time to notifications. This timestamp will act asacknowledgement of the notification and will stop the notification chainprocess for that user.

In addition to early warning and notification mechanisms, the inventionprovides a central workspace where subscribers can access informationrelevant to public health even when there are no current alerts. Userscan see and interact with a map representing their geographicalentitlement area. They can zoom in and out in order to see data atvarying levels of detail. In addition to viewing the current state ofthe sales data, users can view historical data in variety of formats.These formats include historical bar and line charts, historicalsnapshots of the graphical map interface and a time-lapse view of theintensity of sales volume and the intensity of symptoms throughout theirgeographic area.

According to yet a further aspect of the invention, a computerizedmethod for identification and notification of elevated over-the-countermedication sales is disclosed that comprises: receiving retail salesdata of a plurality of over-the-counter medications; organizing theretail sales data into a plurality of categories; calculating an alertthreshold for at least one of the plurality of categories; detectingwhen the alert threshold for the at least one of the plurality ofcategories is exceeded; and notifying at least one subscriber that thealert threshold was exceeded.

In another aspect of the invention, a computerized system foridentification and notification of elevated over-the-counter medicationsales is disclosed that comprises: a subscription module for maintainingsubscriber information about a plurality of subscribers; a retail chainmodule for tracking sales data of a plurality of over-the-countermedications for a plurality of retail stores; a categorization modulefor maintaining categorization information about the plurality ofover-the-counter medications; a geographic entitlement module formaintaining geographic information about a plurality of geographic areasbeing monitored; a breach module for detecting elevated sales of atleast one of the plurality of over-the-counter medications; and anotification module for sending an alert to at least one of theplurality of subscribers when a predetermined alert threshold has beenexceeded.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, a computerized methodfor calculating alert threshold values for over-the-counter medicationsales is disclosed and comprises: (A) receiving sales data of aplurality of over-the-counter medications for a plurality of retailstores; (B) normalizing the sales data; (C) estimating a futurenormalized sales value; and (D) calculating an alert threshold valuebased at least in part on the estimated future normalized sales values.

In another aspect of the invention, a method for providing earlydetection of public health issues is disclosed and comprises: monitoringsales of a plurality of over-the-counter medications for a plurality ofgeographic regions; organizing the plurality of over-the-countermedications into a plurality of categories based on a plurality ofingredients; detecting an elevation in the number of sales in at leastone of the plurality of categories; analyzing the elevated sales in theat least one of the plurality of categories to determine whether analert should be issued; and sending an alert to at least one subscriber.

In a still further aspect of the invention, a method for monitoring theintensity level of public illness is disclosed comprising: monitoringretail sales data of a plurality of over-the-counter medications;organizing the retail sales data into a plurality of categories; andpresenting an intensity of the sales of at least one of the plurality ofcategories.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the components of the system foridentification and notification for elevated over-the-counter medicationsales according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of the modules of the system foridentification and notification for elevated over-the-counter medicationsales according to a preferred embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment illustrating thesingle-chemical categorization methodology of the invention at its toplevel.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment illustrating thesimple symptom categorization methodology of the invention at its toplevel.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment illustrating themulti-chemical categorization methodology of the invention at its toplevel.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment illustrating thecomplex symptom categorization methodology of the invention at its toplevel.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a database structure of a preferredembodiment that allows the building of the multiple categorizationschemes where individual products can be related to any or all of thecategorization methodologies.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the main components according to apreferred embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment process fortransforming the data used to define the alert threshold value.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an alternate embodiment process fortransforming the data to define the alert threshold value.

FIG. 11 is a simulated screen of a preferred embodiment showing addingor editing a user profile.

FIG. 12 is a simulated screen of a preferred embodiment showing addingor editing notification events for a user profile.

FIG. 13 is a simulated screen of a preferred embodiment showing adashboard interface for viewing geographical information interaction,data interaction, and application interaction.

FIG. 14 is a simulated screen of a preferred embodiment showing anenlarged view of a time-lapse animation of the intensity of sales volumefor any given medication category or symptom throughout a geographicarea.

FIG. 15 is a simulated screen of a preferred embodiment showinghistorical trend information for the currently selected geographicalarea and simple symptom category.

FIG. 16 is a simulated screen of a preferred embodiment showinghistorical trend information for the currently selected geographicalarea and complex symptom category.

FIG. 17 is a simulated screen of a preferred embodiment showinghistorical trend information for the currently selected geographicalarea and single chemical category.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of theinvention, reference will now be made to the embodiment illustrated inthe drawings and specific language will be used to describe the same. Itwill nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of theinvention is thereby intended, and alterations and modifications in theillustrated device, and further applications of the principles of theinvention as illustrated therein are herein contemplated as wouldnormally occur to one skilled in the art to which the invention relates.

The present invention provides a system and method for identificationand notification of elevated over-the-counter medication sales withresponse coordination. The system and method aids in early detection ofbio-events including public health outbreaks and the deliberate releaseof a pathogenic agent as in a bio-terrorist attack. Since bio-terroristpathogens initially create flu-like symptoms, tracking select categoriesof over-the-counter medicines designed to address those symptoms aids inearly detection of public illness, including bio-events that result froma bio-terrorist attack.

A preferred embodiment of the invention disclosed herein uses acategorization hierarchy utilizing its classification methodology anddatabase system that organizes over-the-counter (OTC) medical productsinto accurate chemical, simple symptom and complex symptomclassifications. The categorization hierarchy methodology, system anddatabase also aggregate and organize OTC products by the symptomsrelieved by the active ingredients (such as pain relief), as well as bythe marketed purpose of those products (such as back pain relief).Over-the-counter medical products are defined herein to includetraditional over-the-counter medicines such as pain relievers and upsetstomach medicines, and also include other products such as facialtissue, orange juice, toilet paper, chicken soup, and herbal remedies,as a few non-limiting examples. Various products such as these that tendto serve as leading indicators of potential public illness can bemonitored to help provide early detection of public health concerns.

The system communicates with each of the retail data providers whosupply the retail sales data. A unique identifier (such as the UPC Code)and a base-level categorization for each OTC medication of interest arestored in a text file that is made available to the retail dataproviders. Each retail data provider uses the UPC codes from that fileto generate a query in their database system to supply the sum of unitssold in each base-level category by individual store and for a singledate. The results of the query are then output into a text file, and canbe structured in an XML or other text-based format.

This implementation provides several advantages. First, additional OTCmedications of interest can be added to the system without requiring anyretail data provider to perform additional work to maintain theirdatabase query. Second, changes to the base-level categorization schemeare easily implemented and would not cause any retail data provider tohave to modify their database query. Third, each retail data providercan include any of their private label products that correspond to anyof the UPC codes of the OTC medications of interest without disclosingthe sales volume for their individual store brands. Fourth, proprietaryinformation regarding volume of sales of any individual product is notmade available to the system and is therefore protected from accidentaldistribution or unauthorized access. Lastly, gathering sales data at thebase-level category allows the system to re-categorize the sales dataaccording to a number of more meaningful categorization schemes.

Other alternate or additional methods of transmitting data from retailstores to the system are possible, such as by querying databases of thevarious retail data providers forming a distributed database view, byallowing the retail data providers to directly write their designateddata to the database of the present system, or by utilizing one or moreretail data provider clearinghouses, as a few additional non-limitingexamples.

A preferred embodiment of the invention provides an automated analysisand cross-referencing system of retail sales data of OTC medicalproducts. The system analyzes retail sales data for anomalies in dailysales numbers of a variety of categories of products. The system furtheranalyzes those identified data anomalies to determine if there is ageographical or recurring pattern to the data anomalies. Any suchpattern may be determined to be an Alert and will generate an AlertNotification to be sent to all subscribers whose subscription covers thelocation of the data anomaly.

FIG. 1 illustrates the system 100 of a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention. The system 100 operates over the Internet 102 and cansupport the informational needs of a plurality of subscribers 104, 106,and 108. The system 100 can accept sales data from a plurality of retaildata providers 110 and 112. A data import process 114 interfaces theretail data providers 110 and 112 with a database 118. The data importprocess 114 reads text files provided by the retail data providers 110and 112 and populates the database 118 with that data. An applicationdashboard 116 appears as a Web page and interfaces network clients 104,106 and 108 with the database 118. A system administration utility 120appears as a Web page and provides a mechanism for maintaininginformation about the subscriber clients 104, 106 and 108 and retaildata providers 110 and 112 in the database 118. Statistical information126 and medical information 128 about over-the-counter medical products,sales trends and alert levels are input through a data entry system 124to a breach level calculation process 122. The statistical and medicalinformation 126 and 128 can come from Web-based research or traditionalresearch based on documents and publications. The breach levelcalculation 122 analyzes data in the database 118 according to thestatistical and medical information 126 and 128 to determine alertlevels for the data.

Such database 118 is useful in the analysis of sales trends ofover-the-counter medical products through the use of databaserelationships that are based on chemical and symptom categories. Usersare able to view comprehensive sales trend data by single-chemical,simple symptom and complex symptom categories. Users can also obtaincurrent and historical information about alerts generated within each ofthose categories.

Database 118 preferably allows users to conduct queries by searching onindividual or multiple categories and time scales. The queries willusually take the form of system-defined charts and list selectionsrather than free-form entry.

A database 118 provides quantitative data for over-the-counter medicalproducts and the sales trends of those products in a single sourceaccessible via the Internet. Database 118 supports single-chemical,multi-chemical, simple symptom and complex symptom categories based onidentified over-the-counter medical products. Queries through theInternet 102 allow users to see sales trend information for each ofthose category schemes.

The proper calculation of alert levels according to the variety ofcategorization schemes is essential for accurate notification of unusualdata occurrences. The breach level calculation 122 forecasts the nexttime period's sales number and a threshold for each of the categories inevery categorization scheme for each retail store location. In apreferred embodiment, the time period is one day. If the actual salesnumber exceeds the threshold, the breach level calculation 122 notes thedata anomaly. Once all categories, schemes and stores are processed, theindividual data anomalies are analyzed to determine the severity of theanomaly and the proximity of other anomalies. Based on this analysis,the breach level calculation 122 stores the alert information in thedatabase 118.

In a preferred embodiment, access to the system is by subscription.Subscriptions to the system can be provided for free or upon payment ofone-time or ongoing fees, as a few examples. Each customer has up to NAccounts in the system. N is controllable, and in a preferred embodimentis set to 1. Each Account has one or more Administrators who createindividual Subscriber records for each person associated with thatcustomer who will have access to the system. The number of Subscribersallowed for each Account is controllable, and in a preferred embodimentis unlimited.

In a preferred embodiment, each Account has an associated GeographicalEntitlement Area. A Geographical Entitlement Area is a contiguous areadefined by common governmental boundaries (e.g. ZIP codes, Counties,States) that cover an area of concern to the customer with the Account.In a preferred embodiment, Geographical Entitlement Areas arepre-defined as groups of one or more ZIP codes that conform to a varietyof governmental boundaries such as Counties, Metropolitan StatisticalAreas (MSAs) and States. Other Geographical Entitlement Areas that donot conform to a governmental boundary can be created to satisfyrequirements of individual customers. Alert Notifications are sent onlyto those Subscribers whose Geographical Entitlement Area encompasses thelocation of the Alert.

FIG. 2 illustrates a conceptual diagram of a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention, and is referred to herein by the general referencenumeral 200. The conceptual diagram illustrates a geographicalentitlement module 202, a subscription module 204, a notification module206, a retail chain module 208, a breach module 212, and acategorization module 210. Additional modules may be defined to supportthe functionality defined for this invention.

The geographical entitlement module 202 comprises the tables andfunctionality necessary to maintain information about polygons 218,region definitions 216 and geographic entitlements 214. Geographicentitlements 214 are combinations of regions 216 and are used to definethe viewable data for each subscription 220. Regions 216 arecombinations of polygons 218. Polygons 218 can be recognizedgovernmental boundaries (e.g. zip codes, townships, counties) orarbitrary boundaries and are displayed on a map using GeographicInformation System (GIS) technology. Polygons 218 may also represent theservice area of individual stores based on their geo-code location(latitude and longitude). Alerts 234 are generated and displayed forindividual polygons 218. Additional tables and functionality may beadded to this module to support the defined invention.

The subscription module 204 comprises the tables and functionalitynecessary to maintain information about accounts 220, users 222, userprofiles 224, security information 226, notification methods 228, andnotification preferences 230. Each account 220 contains informationabout point of contact, subscription start and end dates, number ofallowed users and several other pieces of information about eachaccount. Each account 220 can have more than one user 222. Each user 222comprises several parts. Only users defined in subscription module 204can act as subscriber clients 104, 106 and 108 (FIG. 1). Name, addressand contact information is found in the user profile 224. User ID andpassword are found in security information 226. Notification methods(e.g. email address, telephone number, pager number) and a schedule fornotification options are found in notification methods 228. Userpreferences regarding what topics or alerts should generatenotifications are found in notification preferences 230. Additionaltables and functionality may be added to this module to support thedefined invention.

The notification module 206 comprises the tables and functionalitynecessary to store messages 232, alerts 234, notifications 236, and logs238. Messages 232 are created by subscribers to be sent to certain othersubscribers. Messages 232 are combined with user notificationpreferences 230 and a delivery timestamp to create a notification 236.Alerts 234 are created by the system to indicate a breach conditionexists in a particular polygon. Alerts 234 are combined with usernotification preferences 230 and a delivery timestamp to create anotification record 236 to be sent to every user 222 whose geographicentitlement area 214 encompasses the polygon 218 generating the breach250. Logs 238 are maintained of every notification 236 sent as well asconfirmation of receipt from each user 222 who was sent the notification236. Additional tables and functionality may be added to this module tosupport the defined invention.

The retail chain module 208 comprises the tables and functionalitynecessary to maintain information about retail chain data providers 240,the individual stores reported by each chain 242, the overall dailysales data for each store 246, and the categorized daily sales for eachstore 248. In addition, logs 244 are maintained for each file created bya retail data provider 110 and 112 (FIG. 1) over the Internet 102. Store242 information includes location information such as address, city,state and zip code as well as derived geo-code information such aslatitude and longitude. Categorized daily sales 248 are categorizedaccording to the combination of active ingredients 256 found inindividual products 258. This module contains an algorithm for sendingto each retail data provider a text file containing the identificationand categorization information regarding one or more of the OTC productsfor which they are to submit sales data. This module also contains thealgorithm for importing and processing the one or more text filescontaining the sales data that are received from one or more retail dataproviders. Additional tables and functionality may be added to thismodule to support the defined invention.

The categorization module 210 comprises the tables and functionalitynecessary to maintain information about each OTC product 258, and abasic categorization of those products 258 based on the combination ofactive ingredients. The combination of active ingredients relieves aparticular set of symptoms, referred to as complex symptoms 250. Alsoincluded is information about individual chemicals 256, and simplesymptoms 254 relieved by the individual chemicals 256. This modulecontains an algorithm for dynamically creating the text file containingthe identification and categorization information regarding one or moreof the OTC products being monitored. As previously discussed, the textfile then gets sent by the retail chain module 208 to the retail dataproviders indicating for which OTC products they should submit salesdata. Additional tables and functionality may be added to this module tosupport the defined invention.

The breach module 212 contains the tables and functionality necessary tocalculate a breach 260, or indication of abnormal sales volume. Breaches260 are calculated for each store 242 individually. Sales volume foreach store is analyzed in a number of categories (active ingredientcombination 256, single chemicals 254, complex symptom 250 or simplesymptom 252) to determine if a particular day's sales are abnormal. Ifabnormal sales levels are located, a breach record is created indicatingthe date, store, category and intensity of the breach. Breaches atindividual stores are combined with stores appearing in the samepolygons 218 to determine how many alerts 234 will be created.Additional tables and functionality may be added to this module tosupport the defined invention.

Shown in FIG. 3 is a multi-chemical categorization at its top level 302representing the individual OTC medical products, identified by theirUPC code. Each product 302 is linked to a multi-chemical category 304representing the active ingredients found in the product. Eachmulti-chemical category 304 tracks up to four active ingredients foreach product 302, separated by an ‘_’. If there are fewer than fouractive ingredients in a product, an ‘x’ is used as a place-holder. Eachproduct 302 can have a single multi-chemical category 304. Eachmulti-chemical category 304 can have more than one product 302associated with it.

FIG. 4 illustrates the complex symptom categorization methodology of apreferred embodiment of the invention. At the top level 402 areindividual OTC medical products, identified by their UPC code. Eachproduct 402 is linked to a multi-chemical category 404 representing theactive ingredients found in that product. Each multi-chemical category404 is linked to a complex symptom 406. The complex symptoms are definedby the intended medical use of the combination of active ingredients404.

FIG. 5 illustrates the single chemical categorization methodology of apreferred embodiment of the invention. At the top level 502 areindividual OTC medical products, identified by their UPC code. Eachproduct 502 is linked to a multi-chemical category 504 representing theactive ingredients found in that product. Each multi-chemical category504 tracks up to four active ingredients for each product 502, separatedby an ‘_’. If there are fewer than four active ingredients in a product,an ‘x’ is used as a place-holder. Each multi-chemical category 504 islinked to up to four individual chemicals 506. Any place-holders foundin the active ingredients 504 are not linked to individual chemicals506. Each product 502 can have a single multi-chemical category 504.Each multi-chemical category 504 can have up to four individualchemicals 506.

FIG. 6 illustrates the simple symptom categorization methodology of apreferred embodiment of the invention. At the top level 602 areindividual OTC medical products, identified by their UPC code. Eachproduct 602 is linked to a multi-chemical category 604 representing theactive ingredients found in that product. Each multi-chemical category604 tracks up to four active ingredients for each product 602, separatedby an ‘_’. If there are fewer than four active ingredients in a product,an ‘x’ is used as a place-holder. Each multi-chemical category 604 islinked to up to four individual chemicals 606. Any place-holders foundin the active ingredients 604 are not linked to individual chemicals606. Each individual chemical 606 is linked to one or more simplesymptoms 608 based on the intended medical use of each individualchemical. Each product 602 can have a single multi-chemical category604. Each multi-chemical category 604 can have up to four individualchemicals 606. Each individual chemical 606 can be linked to one or moresimple symptoms 608.

It will be recognized by those in the art that various othercategorization schemes are possible and would still be within the spiritof the invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates how individual OTC medical products 702 can berelated to any or all of the categorization methodologies described inFIGS. 3, 4, 5 and 6.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of the main components, according to apreferred embodiment of the invention. An alert/response system 805comprises an administrative interface 840 and user interface 845, bothof which have access to the calculation/categorization database system825. In a preferred embodiment, the calculation/categorization system isimplemented in a computerized database system. A user 865 defines theirprofile and notification chain according to the invention using thealert/response system user interface 845 over a network 870. In apreferred embodiment, the network 870 is an Internet connection and thealert/response system 805 comprises a production software applicationaccessible over the World Wide Web. Retail data providers receive a textfile containing identification and categorization information regardingone or more of the OTC products being monitored. Retail data providerstransfer retail store data 810 to a file server 820 using an FTPconnection 815. The data from the file server 820 is imported into thedatabase 825. Each day, an alert identification process 830 examines theretail store data to define alert levels and to create notificationrecords. A workflow engine 835 stores tasks and approvals required torespond to any alerts. Users 865 can interact with the workflow engine835 through the user interface 845 and the database server 825. Theworkflow engine 835 creates notification messages if there are tasks orapprovals requiring action from the user 865. Each day, a notificationprocess 850 sends pending notifications to the user's email account 860using SMTP 855. It should be appreciated that the notification can besent to any specified email account or to any other supportednotification method. It should be appreciated the multiple notificationscan be sent to a single user, and it should be appreciated that the usercan browse existing notification messages in the system 805.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment process fortransforming the data used to define the alert threshold value. Salesdata 902 is received from retail data providers 110 and 112 (FIG. 1)each day. The data is normalized for overall store sales volume 904 bydividing the number of units sold in each OTC medical category by theoverall number of units sold at the store. Any missing data values areextrapolated 906 from surrounding days. Data may be missing because astore was closed on a particular day or a data file was not receivedfrom the retail data provider or for other reasons. The normalized andextrapolated data is “de-noised” 908 by using a discrete cosinetransformation that smoothes the extreme values of the data series whileretaining the overall shape of the series. The resulting data series isdecomposed into its component resolutions 910 by using a discrete(redundant) wavelet transformation. The component resolutions describedifferent frequencies of the original data series. For each componentresolution, the next day's value is calculated 912 using simpleautoregressive models. The predicted values are summed 914 to provide apredicted value for the next day's normalized sales value. The alertthreshold is calculated 916 as a number of standard deviations above theaverage for the data series. The number of standard deviations iscontrollable, and in a preferred embodiment is set to three. Any numberof methods could be used to accurately predict the next day's salesvalue and define a threshold for alert. The next figure describes analternate method.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of an alternate embodiment of the datatransformation process used to define the alert threshold value. Salesdata 1002 is received from retail data providers 110 and 112 (FIG. 1)each day. The data is normalized for overall store sales volume 1004 bydividing the number of units sold in each OTC medical category by theoverall number of units sold at the store. Any missing data values areextrapolated 1006 from surrounding days. Data may be missing because astore was closed on a particular day or a data file was not receivedfrom the retail data provider or for other reasons. For each weekday,the next value for that same weekday is predicted 1008 by averaging thevalues of the actual sales for each of the same weekdays in the past.For example, if the next day is a Monday, then all actual values for allMondays in the database are averaged to provide the predicted value forthe next day. The alert threshold is calculated 1010 as a number ofstandard deviations above the average for the data series. The number ofstandard deviations is controllable, and in a preferred embodiment isset to three. Any number of methods could be used to accurately predictthe next day's sales value and define a threshold for alert.

FIG. 11 shows a simulated screen that allows adding or editing asubscriber profile. A subscriber might be, for example, an employee of agovernment agency, a public or private health care facility, or anyonewho has permission to access the system. A subscriber could also be amember of the general public. In a preferred embodiment, each Subscriberis a member of a single Account. A Subscriber maintains their ownProfile 1102, including contact information such as name, address andtelephone number, as well as notification information such as addressesand priority preferences. The notification information 1104 defined byeach Subscriber is referred to as their Notification Chain. In apreferred embodiment, the supported notification methods include email,telephone, pagers, cell phone messages, fax, and voice. Additionalnotification methods are possible, including the option to notifyanother subscriber.

In a preferred embodiment, the Notification Chain is used whenever anAlert Notification or Proactive Notification is sent. In a preferredembodiment, a Subscriber is able to define the specific events toreceive proactive notification 1106, as will be discussed with referenceto FIG. 12. Each Subscriber is contacted using their preferrednotification method and address. If the Subscriber has not responded tothat notification within the defined number of attempts, their nextnotification method is used. This process repeats until all notificationmethods for that Subscriber are exhausted. The time allowed for aSubscriber to respond before the Notification Chain is advanced iscontrollable, and in a preferred embodiment is set to one hour. In apreferred embodiment, a Subscriber can respond to a Notification bylogging into the system. Alternatively or additionally, a user canrespond to a Notification by verbally responding to a telephonenotification, responding to a telephone notification by entering anidentification code, replying to an email received by the system, orcalling into a call center to confirm receipt of the notification, as afew non-limiting examples. The response method that is required canoptionally be varied depending on what type of notification method wasused to send the alert at the particular level of the notificationchain.

FIG. 12 shows a simulated profile screen for designating thenotification events for a particular Subscriber. In a preferredembodiment, each Subscriber is able to select the desired alert eventand alert level 1202. This can be done by Medication Category 1204 andChemical Category 1206. The Subscriber also defines other notificationspreferences such as the preferred frequency to receive activity summarye-mails 1208 and other system generated events that activate proactivenotification 1210.

In a preferred embodiment, each Subscriber is assigned to one of severalUser Roles that govern their level of access to the system. The possibleUser Roles are: Super User, Account Administrator, Approver, Author andUser. Additional User Roles can be created to address the requirementsof the system. A Super User can create, update and deactivate Account,Subscribers and User Roles. An Account Administrator can modify theiraccount's Subscriber information and may create or deactivateSubscribers within their Account. An Approver may approve any alertmessages prior to the notifications being sent to the Subscribers. AnAuthor may create and send messages via the system. A User is a genericuser, with no special permissions or capabilities beyond the defaultfunctionality of the system.

In a preferred embodiment, there are three types of Notifications:Passive, Proactive and Alert. Passive Notifications are created by anAuthor and are simply displayed within the system to all Subscribersentitled to see the Notification. No attempt is made to notify theSubscriber outside of the system. Proactive Notifications are alsocreated by an Author and displayed within the system, but theNotification Chain is activated for each Subscriber. Alert Notificationsare generated by the system in response to the Alerts identified by theanalysis process. Alert Notifications are also displayed within thesystem and activate the Notification Chain for each Subscriber

In a preferred embodiment, Subscribers will receive Alert Notificationswhenever an Alert is validated in their Geographical Entitlement Area.The message sent in the Alert Notification is controllable, and in apreferred embodiment provides the subscriber with basic informationregarding the bio-event or notification. Subscribers are urged to loginto the system where they are shown details of the data anomaly,including its severity and location.

In a preferred embodiment, Subscribers are able to log into the systemat any time, regardless of whether there have been recent AlertNotifications. Whether there are Alert Notifications or not, Subscriberswill be able to interact with the system to view their GeographicalEntitlement Area, recent and historical information about Alerts, chartsof sales trends for a variety of OTC medical categories, a workflowengine for managing tasks and assignments and additional functionalityprovided by the system.

As shown in FIG. 13, the system has a dashboard layout that allows theuser to view current information for the subscribed geographicalentitlement area, including graphical views of the alert areas 1302,recent alerts of data breaches 1312, and current system-generatednotifications 1332. The dashboard layout is divided into three primaryinteraction areas; the geographic information interaction section 1302,the data interaction section 1310, and the application interactionsection 1330. The geographic information interaction section providesSubscribers with a representation of their geographical entitlement areaas well as geographical localization and representation of system data.Additional geographic information interactivity is also available inTime-Lapse View 1350, as will be discussed with FIG. 14.

In a preferred embodiment, the data interaction section 1310 is linkedto the geographic information interaction section 1302. Data andinformation viewed in the data interaction section 1310 is synchronizedto the geographic view represented in the geographic informationinteraction section 1302. In a preferred embodiment, the datainteraction section 1310 provides the Subscriber with the ability tointeract with recent Breach Data information 1312 as well as HistoricBreach Data information 1314. In the data interaction section 1310,Subscribers also are able to interact with system data by category, suchas Simple Symptom 1316, Single Chemical 1318 and Complex Symptom 1320.

The application interaction section 1330 provides access to other systemfunctionality as will as integration with other third-partyapplications. The Status section 1332 contains current informationpertaining to the status of system data. The Notifications section 1334provides Subscribers the opportunity to view the text from bothproactive and passive notifications. The Response Coordination section1336 is the portal for the context-sensitive tasks and actions to beaccomplished. The Recommendations section 1338 containscontext-sensitive recommendations for the Subscriber to follow based onsystem events. Designed to be configurable, additional tabs may be addedto provide bidirectional integration and interaction with other relatedthird party applications 1340.

FIG. 14 shows a simulated screen of the geographical entitlement area inan enlarged view. In a preferred embodiment, Subscribers will have theoption of viewing historical sales data in a time-lapse animation formatdisplaying the relative intensity of sales in a particular categorythroughout their Geographical Entitlement Area. Subscribers will selecta category or symptom, a timeframe and a geographic region. Thetimeframe is configurable, and in a preferred embodiment will allow theSubscriber to choose between 30, 60 and 90 days. Once the timeframe,category and geographic region are selected, the Subscriber will startthe time-lapse animation. This animation is analogous to a Dopplerweather radar map. The system will calculate the relative intensity ofsales of each category at each retail outlet. Each intensity level willbe assigned a color. For each time period to be included in thetime-lapse display, the area surrounding each retail outlet will be setto the appropriate color depending on that outlet's intensity level. Thetime-lapse display will then display the appropriate number of snapshotsof the map in an automated fashion.

The time-lapse animation displays one snapshot per time period. In apreferred embodiment, the time period is one day. The time-lapseanimation monitors near real-time data. In a preferred embodiment, nearreal-time data refers to sales data from the previous day. Additionalmethods could be conceived that use older data or use constantcommunication channels for true real-time data.

The time-lapse display has the advantage of visually representing theintensity levels of sales of OTC medications within a particulargeographic area. Subscribers are able to use this information to inferthe inception, progression and strength of public illnesses based on themedications purchased by the affected consumers. Using this information,subscribers can see the areas where public illnesses have spread andwhat areas are likely to be affected next.

FIG. 15 is a simulated screen showing some historical trend informationfor the currently selected geographical area and simple symptomcategory. FIG. 16 shows some historical trend information for a complexsymptom category. FIG. 17 is a simulated screen showing historical trendinformation for the currently selected geographical area and singlechemical category. At the illustrated level of geographic detail, thechart in the data interaction section reflects the actual breach levelthresholds for level 1, level 2 and level 3 breaches 1702.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in thedrawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered asillustrative and not restrictive in character, it being understood thatonly the preferred embodiment has been shown and described and that allchanges and modifications that come within the spirit of the inventionare desired to be protected. A person of ordinary skill in the computersoftware art is readily capable of practicing this invention based uponthis detailed description of the preferred embodiment to date withoutundue experimentation. A person of ordinary skill in the computersoftware art will also recognize that the user interface features,including the window navigation style, mechanism for selecting options,screen content and layouts could be organized differently on the samescreen or different screens than as portrayed in the illustrations andstill be within the spirit of the invention.

1. A method for creating and maintaining a categorization schedulerelated to a plurality of public health conditions, comprising the stepsof: identifying at least one product from a plurality of products, thesale of which is indicative of at least one of said public healthconditions; obtaining information pertaining to said identifiedproducts; determining a unique product identifier for each of saididentified products; using said information to provide an association ofeach of said unique product identifiers to at least one of a pluralityof categories, said at least one of said plurality of categories beingrelated to at least one of said public health conditions to form acategorization schedule; and utilizing said categorization schedule toassociate information related to the sale of at least one of saididentified products with said at least one of said plurality ofcategories.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said informationpertaining to said identified products is obtained from an individual.3. The method of claim 1, wherein said information pertaining to saididentified products is obtained from a multi-national organization. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein said information pertaining to saididentified products is obtained from a commercial company.
 5. The methodof claim 1, wherein said information pertaining to said identifiedproducts is obtained from a government agency.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein at least one of said identified products comprises anover-the-counter medication product.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinat least one of said identified products comprises a personal careproduct.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of saididentified products comprises a prescription medication product.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein at least one of said identified productscomprises an herbal medication product.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein at least one of said identified products comprises a foodproduct.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein said product identifiers arebased on universal product codes.
 12. The method of claim 1, whereinsaid product identifiers are based on European article number codes. 13.The method of claim 1, wherein said product identifiers are based onradio frequency identification information.
 14. The method of claim 1,wherein said product identifiers are based on the names of saididentified products.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein said productidentifiers are based on the description of said identified products.16. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one of said pluralityof categories comprises a physical form of said identified products. 17.The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one of said plurality ofcategories comprises a manner of administration of said identifiedproducts.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one of saidplurality of categories comprises a therapeutic classification of saididentified products.
 19. The method of claim 1, wherein said at leastone of said plurality of categories comprises a syndrome of said atleast one of said public health conditions.
 20. The method of claim 1,wherein said at least one of said plurality of categories comprises abody system.
 21. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one ofsaid plurality of categories comprises a patient target age range forsaid identified products.
 22. The method of claim 1, wherein said atleast one of said plurality of categories comprises a promotional statusof said identified products.
 23. The method of claim 1, wherein saidstep of using said information to provide an association utilizes acomputer program.
 24. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of usingsaid information to provide an association is performed manually.
 25. Amethod for providing detection of at least one of a plurality of publichealth conditions, comprising the steps of: utilizing a categorizationschedule for a plurality of products, said schedule incorporatingproduct identifiers uniquely corresponding to said plurality ofproducts, each of said product identifiers being associated with atleast one of a plurality of categories, wherein said schedule is used toassociate information related to the sale of at least one of saidproducts with the contents of at least one of said plurality ofcategories; and conditioning at least a portion of said contents of saidat least one of said plurality of categories.
 26. The method of claim25, wherein said step of conditioning comprises the steps of:determining a threshold based, at least in part, on said contents ofsaid at least one of said plurality of categories, said thresholdindicative of the presence of at least one of said public healthconditions; detecting when said threshold for said at least one of saidplurality of categories is exceeded; and generating, in response to saiddetecting, an indication that said threshold was exceeded.
 27. Themethod of claim 25, wherein said step of conditioning is performed inaccordance with at least one criteria.
 28. The method of claim 27,wherein said at least one criteria comprises a geographic area.
 29. Themethod of claim 25, further comprising the step of: distributing saidportion of said conditioned content.
 30. A method for managing productscomprising the steps of: utilizing a categorization schedule for aplurality of products, said schedule incorporating product identifiersuniquely corresponding to said plurality of products, each of saidproduct identifiers being associated with at least one of a plurality ofcategories related to at least one ingredient contained in saidcorresponding one of said plurality of products, wherein said scheduleis used to associate information related to the sales of at least one ofsaid plurality of products with the contents of at least one of saidplurality of categories, said at least one of said plurality ofcategories indicative of said at least one health condition; determininga threshold for said at least one of said plurality of categories;detecting when said threshold is exceeded; generating a notification asan indication of the presence of said at least one health condition; andinitiating an action in response to said notification.
 31. The method ofclaim 30, wherein said step of initiating comprises: modifying inventoryquantities of at least one product related to at least one of saidplurality of products.
 32. The method of claim 30, wherein said step ofinitiating comprises: promoting the sale of at least one product relatedto at least one of said plurality of products.